Six-rider Tour teams; Vogel out of intensive care: Daily News Digest

Welcome to your Daily News Digest. Here’s what’s happening today:

The news cycle was eerily quiet on the final day of July. The Tour de France has ended, but teams are rapidly working behind-the-scenes. August 1 marks the official beginning of the transfer season, as teams, riders, and agents can officially confirm the rumours of riders transferring. Check back here tomorrow as we’ll have the full rundown of where everyone is headed in 2019. But, in today’s news, the UCI President spoke candidly on how he would spice up the sport of cycling.

Story of the day: Six-rider teams at the Tour de France?

In a wide-ranging interview with Switzerland’s Le Temps newspaper, UCI President David Lappartient revealed he is not opposed to having six-rider squads at the Tour de France in the future. In 2018, teams were maxed out at eight riders, unlike in year’s past when each team normally had nine riders.

UCI president David Lappartient at the start of the last stage of the 2018 Tour de France in Houilles. Photo: Kristof Ramon

“We should go further with a reduction to six, I think, for the measure to be really effective,” Lappartient said when asked about this year’s team size reduction. “At seven, a team like Sky is still racing. At six, [minus] the leader, it’s only five guys to ride, and they would tire a little more. At the same time, it may take more teams to have a peloton of respectable size.”

Lappartient also said the UCI is considering other options to try to excite the racing further. “We will launch an attractiveness study because there are many aspects to consider. Should we forbid the headsets that kill the initiative and the power sensors that place the riders on monitoring? Should we rethink the format of the steps? We must analyze everything.”

It remains to be seen what comes of Lappartient’s ideas, but considering there was strong pushback when Tour squads were initially reduced to eight riders, it looks very unlikely teams will approve six or even seven-rider teams. Furthermore, radios are extremely helpful to the safety of the riders out on course with team directors warning of upcoming turns and road furniture like roundabouts. ASO banned radios on two stages during the 2009 Tour, but has not experimented with not having radios since.

Car runs down cycling tourist group in Tajikistan

A car ran down a group of cycling tourists in the Central Asian state of Tajikistan over the weekend, killing four people from the United States, the Netherlands and Switzerland, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a video obtained by Radio Free Europe on Monday, a car can be seen making a U-turn on a rural road and driving through a group of fallen and injured cyclists. Tajik authorities said the occupants of the car then got out and stabbed and shot some of the survivors, leaving little doubt that the assault was intentional.

The Tajik Interior Ministry confirmed the four deaths and said that members of the security services had killed four people suspected of being involved in the attack, all natives of Tajikistan, and had detained a fifth person. Three other cyclists were injured. Tajik police said they had found a car with damage consistent with a collision with the cyclists.

The victims were part of a group of cyclists riding in the Danghara district, about 60 miles south of the country’s capital, Dushanbe, on a picturesque mountain road popular with Western cyclists for its remote scenery in a region close to the border with Afghanistan.

The incident marks the second Islamic State attack on cyclists over the past nine months; in October 2017, an Uzbek man who had emigrated to the United States drove a rented truck down a path along the Hudson River in Manhattan, killing eight people.

Lebron James opens school where every student receives a bicycle

A new public school in Akron, Ohio for at-risk kids opened this week and every student will receive a bicycle, according to sbnation.com. The school is the brainchild of American basketball player Lebron James and is an extension of his foundation, the Lebron James Family Foundation.

The article states, “LeBron James often credits his bicycle as a huge factor in his childhood that gave him an escape from dangerous parts of his neighbourhood and the freedom to explore.”

Called the “I Promise School,” the new school was jointly formed between James’ foundation and Akron Public Schools. The focus of the school is an accelerated learning program, which will help kids that might otherwise be lagging behind. Also, the school offers many services to help reduce outside factors that may cause children to struggle and fall behind in the classroom. These services include extensive after-school activities, an on-site food bank, job placement assistance for parents and each student receiving a bike.

Race Radio

Cyclocross star Hermans takes stage 4 in Wallonia

Former European under-23 cyclocross champion Quinten Hermans (Telenet-Fidea Lions) took a surprise sprint victory on the fourth stage of the Tour de Wallonie in Herstal, Belgium. Hermans also grabbed the yellow leader’s jersey off the back of Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) due to the bonus seconds he gained by winning the stage.

“I am the first one surprised by my victory,” Hermans said. “I certainly felt fast in the last sprints. This victory, my first at this level on the road, is therefore quite unexpected. My team did not come to the Tour de Wallonie to win the final ranking. We will see how to tackle the fifth and final stage on Wednesday. I will be very proud to wear the yellow jersey. The Tour de Wallonie is my last road race. I remain first and foremost a cyclocross rider. I will leave soon for a training camp in Mallorca to prepare for the next winter season…”

Vincenzo Nibali’s goal of contesting this year’s Vuelta a España and world championships has moved a step closer following successful surgery on Tuesday. Nibali crashed on stage 12 of the Tour de France, being accidentally brought down by a spectator’s camera strap, which snagged his handlebars. Although he finished the stage to Alpe d’Huez, he was subsequently diagnosed with a vertebral fracture and withdrew from the event.

Despite currently recovering from surgery on a fractured vertebrae, Vincenzo Nibali still has high goals for the rest of the season. Photo: Kristof Ramon

“Vincenzo Nibali underwent percutaneous bilateral vertebroplasty surgery of the 10th thoracic vertebra,” stated the Bahrain-Merida team doctor Emilio Magni. “It consisted of the injection of biocompatible cement into the body of the vertebra.”

Magni was present at the operation carried out by Neurosurgeon Prof. Giovanni Broggi at the La Madonnina clinic in Milan. The team said that Nibali will be able to get out of bed on Tuesday afternoon and will be released on Wednesday. “In a few days, he will be able to go back to training, initially on a static bike and then back on the road,” Magni added.

Vogel out of intensive care unit

Nearly a month after a devastating crash which has reportedly left her with life-changing injuries, Olympic gold medallist Kristina Vogel has left the intensive care unit at the Unfallklinik Berlin. According to Der Spiegel, her manager Jörg Werner has said that she is “doing well in the circumstances.”

The 27-year-old German track specialist was riding the concrete track in Cottbus on June 26 when she collided with another rider at full speed. She hit the ground hard and suffered a severe spinal injury. She was airlifted to hospital and has been under treatment ever since then.

Kristina Vogel (centre) captured the gold medal in the individual sprint at the 2018 Track World Championships. Photo: Cor Vos

According to Werner, Vogel is likely to comment on her health “as soon as the situation is clear to her.” This is anticipated to take several weeks. A crowdfunding initiative backed by fellow riders such as Maximilian Levy has raised over 110,000 euro thus far.

Tech news

Hunt woos climbers with Hill Climb SL wheelset

Over the last three years, Hunt has been quietly building an extensive range of wheelsets for road, gravel, and MTB. We had a look at its lightweight 30Carbon Aero road disc wheelset in 2017, but the latest addition is something else: a 991g carbon tubular wheelset specifically developed for racing up hills.

As a U.K.-based company, Hunt is well aware of local enthusiasm for hill-climbing events, and worked with the nation’s current hill-climbing champion, Dan Evans, to create the Hill Climb SL wheelset. A sub-1kg wheelset is not a novelty — weight-weenies have been building them for years — but they are normally very expensive due to the incorporation of exclusive lightweight components, such as Extralite’s CyberHubs. Hunt’s asking price of £1,089/US$1,430/AU$1,931 (excluding delivery and taxes) should do a lot to woo climbing specialists who might have considered that a sub-1kg wheelset was out of their reach.

Hunt’s website has all of the details on the Hill Climb SL wheelset, including a few clear warnings: these wheels are not designed for general road racing or long alpine descents with heavy breaking, and have a recommended maximum rider weight of 78kg.